The comings-and-goings of the quirky residents of a small Welsh seaside town will be brought to Valletta in October in a touring production of a play by Dylan Thomas, one of the greatest poets and writers of the last century.
Welsh company Moonlight Theatre will be staging their production of the ac-claimed play Under Milk Wood in Malta, seeing resonances, despite the distance, bet-ween the two small, maritime countries.
“I believe the themes in Under Milk Wood – set in a small seaside town with quirky characters – lend themselves very well to Valletta and small places like this,” Ainslie Freeman, one of the lead actors, told the Times of Malta.
“I think the play travels very well: it has comedy, it has some tragedy and beautiful lyrical language.”
Under Milk Wood was first written as a radio drama in 1954 and later adapted for the stage. A film version was released in 1972 and a TV adaptation produced for the 60-year anniversary in 2014. It has been described by Welsh actor Richard Burton as a “comic masterpiece”.
It portrays a day and a night in the life of the many eccentric and comic characters who inhabit a mythical fishing village in Wales.
Mr Thomas was born, grew up and spent most of his life in Wales.
“Our director was familiar with Malta and felt that, as a country with a strong English-speaking community and a strong cultural tradition, it would be a good place to bring the play,” actor Robert Orchard said.
The cast of 10 is all drawn from Swansea and Cardiff and includes actors from different backgrounds, including a politician and the former head of an Oxford college.
The director, John Rhys Thomas, is a former chairman of the Dylan Thomas Society of Great Britain and has already taken touring productions of the play to New York, Harvard and Canada to great acclaim.
Both Mr Orchard and Ms Freeman have been involved in amateur theatre in Wales for decades and see a huge value in its ability to engage otherwise-overlooked communities.
“It has a great role to play because many people see the theatre as something that is not for them,” Ms Freeman said.
“Amateur theatre is a great leveller and, for the people who get involved, something that takes you out of yourself.”